The invention is directed to a bearing for a motor vehicle, with an inner part with an outer surface having a first undulated contour extending in a longitudinal direction, an outer sleeve surrounding the inner part with an inner surface having a second undulated contour extending in the longitudinal direction, an undulated elastomer body disposed between the two corrugated contours and extending in the longitudinal direction, whereby the elastomer body connects the inner part with the outer sleeve.
Bearings with an inner part, an outer sleeve surrounding the inner part and an elastomer body arranged between the inner part and the outer sleeve and connecting the inner part with the outer sleeve are known in the art, but disadvantageously exhibit a design-limited spread between the radial stiffness and the axial stiffness. For a high radial stiffness, the values for the axial stiffness are limited due to the high calibration, wherein the term “calibration” refers to a reduction in the diameter of the outer sleeve. The elastomer body is pretensioned in a radial direction by the calibration, so that the radial stiffness can be increased while maintaining a low torsional stiffness. Moreover, an intermediate metal sheet can be inserted which additionally increases the radial stiffness, while providing a low torsional stiffness. However, the axial stiffness is limited to a certain range, so that stop buffers are frequently used to attain a higher axial stiffness for both longitudinal bearing orientations.
To further increase the axis stiffness, bearings of the aforedescribed type been developed which have undulated contours and have been used in the past in motor vehicles. However, the ratios of the characteristic curves for axial stiffness, radial stiffness and torsional stiffness of these bearings also have a limited spread, so that, more particularly, only a certain axial stiffness can be achieved.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a bearing which can increase the spread between the ratios of the characteristic curves for axial stiffness, radial stiffness and torsional stiffness.